VLADIMIR PUTIN – OUR UNDER-USED ASSET THAT CAN SHUT HIM DOWN

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Vladimir Putin is an old school ex KGB thug that believes he has the unrestrained right to recreate the USSR, eventually bringing back under his control several of those adjacent Eastern European nations that declared independent sovereignty after the USSR’s breakup in 1991. He knows he can’t persuade them, so he has resorted to military force to achieve it, starting with Ukraine.

There was no military resistance to his fist step taken a few years ago, the takeover of the Crimea Peninsula in Ukraine, so he assumed that his military could overrun the rest of Ukraine in a matter of days. A bad mistake. He just marked the first year of a prolonged war that, in large part due to US support, has shown his military to be checkmated by Ukraine’s outnumbered yet feisty and inventive army of its own. So Putin has ramped up a much more sinister tactic in his scorched earth approach to this war.

Historically It used to be that in most wars civilians were not the primary target; they were usually “collateral damage.” Because of the military stalemate, the civilians of Ukraine have now become one of Putin’s primary targets. His rockets are now increasingly targeting large housing complexes, even resorting to two step barrages with the second barrage delayed until medical help arrives. 

This is barbaric genocide. In the past year this one man, Putin, has single-handedly caused thousands of deaths, and millions uprooted and fleeing Ukraine. All for what? To assuage the ego of a megalomaniac? We need to stop him. And I suspect that most of the free world agrees; they see what he’s doing and in this day and age are appalled by it just like we are.

Wars are expensive. Putin’s primary source for the revenues he needs to fund his military is selling oil and natural gas to the rest of the world. We’ve helped checkmate him militarily. We now need to take advantage of an under-used asset we have that if used properly can dramatically damage his ability to continue to fund the war. The under-used asset? The largest reserves in the world for oil and natural gas.

Sanctions on Russian oil haven’t work. Due to behind the scenes intermediary trading, sanctions have turned out to be hard to monitor and even more difficult to enforce. The US needs to take a different approach. It needs to step up and take the lead in organizing all our free world allies in North America, South America, Europe, Australia/New Zealand, Asia, India, even parts of the Middle East- into a worldwide non partisan coalition that agrees not to sanctions but instead to a complete boycott of purchasing any Russian oil or natural gas, and where needed, the US will guarantee using our reserves to make up any and all shortfalls.

The US is the only nation with the worldwide stature and clout to organize it and the oil and natural gas resources to back it up. Yes it will take a while to put in place and implement, but by taking this bold stance and announcing our effort to make it happen, it will give Putin (and Xi Jinping)) second thoughts about continuing to pursue the war in Ukraine. Instead of continuing to financially support prolonging a war with no end in site, we’d be using our economic leverage to bring it to a halt.

What’s the biggest obstacle? There will be a cacophonous political uproar that comes from those that want the US to move away from fossil fuels. My question to them is this: Can you put politics aside and support a temporary delay in moving away from fossil fuels if it dramatically helps avoid the very real risk of a military show down between the US and a China supported Russia?

Old Man Rock